Have ever had a song stuck in your head that just you just can’t get out.
Most of the time it’s some annoying jingle from a commercial or something similar. Why not, get a song of praise stuck in your head all day.

Like this:

Looking back over 15 years of parenting so far, the following is a list of decisions that we have made concerning our kids that we believe has had the biggest impact.

Here is the quick list and below are explanations of why I believe that each are important.

1) Believe and trust in God
2) Pray together
3) Go to church (consistently)
4) Eat dinner together
5) Be there for them
6) Take lots of pictures and videos
7) Educate yourself
8) Sports and Music
9) Stay together
10) Have fun and make memories

1) Believe and trust in God
God must be number one in our lives and we must show our kids that we believe such. That is why the first 3 keys to successful parenting deal with your faith and belief in one who is higher than us all.

2) Pray together
A great way to teach your kids the importance of God in our lives is to spend time daily with them in prayer. Pray with them before they head off to school. Pray together at dinner. A simple bedtime prayer together is also a great habit to get into with your kids. Becky and I have prayed with each of our kids at bedtime since they were babies. They look forward to bedtime prayer and if you try to skip, they’ll remind you. There is something about praying before bed that gives you and the kids peace of mind to close your eyes and sleep soundly.

3) Go to church (consistently)
Find a good church and then take them consistently. Don’t skip church for ball games or days out on the lake. Schedule events around church, not church around your events. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

4) Eat dinner together
Dinner time is a great time to bond as a family. At our home everyone is involved in the whole dinner process, from setting the table up to cleaning up afterward. Eating together should be a daily tradition that is not skipped. Turn the TV off, set the phones and other electronics to the side and enjoy some quality time together.

5) Be there for them
If at all possible, one of you should stay at home with the kids. When our first child one born, we decided that being at home with the kids was more important than making extra money, especially during the first 5 years of their life. Once they were all in school, Becky went back to work, but has always worked a job that was flexible enough to allow her to be there for the kids when they returned home from school. Your must be there for your kids.

6) Take lot of pictures and videos
Kids grow up fast and along with growing up comes change in how they look. Enjoy the moment, but also take lots of pictures and videos. Both you and the kids will love being able to look back, when they are older, and cherish the moments that you had together.

7) Educate yourself
We all spend about 13 to 17 years of our lives going to school and learning just about everything you will need in life, except how to raise children. Kids don’t come with instruction manuals, so it is necessary to educate yourself in some way about how to raise kids. Read books, talk to and learn from others that have been there already, pray, read the Bible. We have learned a ton from reading books about kids and how to raise them. As they get into the teenage years you will find yourself searching for even more than when they were younger.

8) Get them involved in sports and music
There are many benefits of getting your child involved in a team sport. They learn how to interact with others, how to work together as a team, how to control their emotions, develop motor skills and much more.
Every child should be given the opportunity to learn how to play an instrument. I can’t tell you how many times that I have heard someone say, “I wish that my parents would have made me learn…”. If your child learns how play an instrument, that is something that they can keep the rest of their lives. It’s not easy making them practice every day, but in the end both you and they will be glad for it.

9) Stay together
Your marriage will be tested many times throughout the parenting years. There will be times when you feel like giving up, but don’t.
Diamonds are formed under pressure. If you can stick it out to the end, both you and your kids will be better for it. I am very thankful for my wife. There are many days, when I think about all that she does for us. How I could do it without her, I have no idea. And vise versa. Husband and wife must compliment each other and work together to make the family run. I feel for all the single parents out there and their kids. They have to be under a huge load that I cannot understand.

10) Have fun and make memories
Amongst all the hustle and bustle of life, take some occasional “time-outs”, put life on pause for a moment and enjoy some time together. Play a board game, cards, roll around on the floor with your toddlers, and get away when you can.
One thing that my wife had to teach me concerning vacations was that it is all about making memories. Often times I would get all caught up in how much it is was costing. Gas, hotel, tickets and other things have a price, but memories are priceless. When you spend time together, either at home or on a trip somewhere, focus on having fun and making memories.

Thank you for taking a moment your time to read this. If you feel that it was helpful to you and believe that it could benefit others, please share.
If you would like to receive future articles from me on parenting, simply enter your email address in the “Follow Me” link to the right.

I wrote this scripture down after reading it and put a big question mark beside it. Huh???

If you try to save your life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life, you will save it?

This seems so backward to our natural way of thinking, but you have to look at the whole context to gain a better understanding of what it means.

In this chapter of Luke, Jesus is talking to his disciples about the end times and his return.
He explains how some will be left behind while others are taken up into glory with Him.
He then gives reference to the days of Lot and how Sodom became a wicked place.
(Jesus gave Lot and his family a chance to escape Sodom before he destroyed it)
As they were leaving Sodom, Lot’s wife turned back because she cared so much for the things that she had.
She was hoping to save the life that she had and did not want to lose it, but because she turned back she lost everything, including her life.
If she would have just left it all or lose it, as the verse says, she would have preserved her own life and future.

I think that Jesus is simply telling us that if we hope to be saved, then we must be willing to leave everything behind.
When he says that we must lose our life, he is not talking about death, but our way of living and the life that we have lived in this world.

Yes, sometimes it is better to lose your life, if you want to save it and preserve your future.

I would love to hear your point of view on this verse.
What do you think it means?

Like this:

We are all busy. So much to do and so little time to do it.
At the end of the day we are exhausted and ready to get some sleep so that we can get up the next morning and do it all over again.

Did you make time for God? Was he left out?
While laying in bed, do you now take the time to say a quick bed time prayer?

How does God fit into your schedule or does he even have a spot?

If you are a faithful christian and belong to a church then you likely believe in tithing and giving the first of your finances to the church.
You were taught that this should be at the top of your budget.
You don’t wait and give what is left over at the end; you give to God first and then everything else comes after.

This tithing principle should also apply with our time for God.
Are you giving God the first of your time or the last?
Is God just getting the leftovers, if there are any?

Put God at the top of your daily To-Do list.
Spend the first part of your day with with Him in prayer and reading the Bible.